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Former Ohio Medicaid directors oppose drug price ballot issue

Updated May 23, 2017 at 5:01 PM;Posted May 23, 2017 at 5:00 PM

Three former Ohio Medicaid directors said Tuesday they oppose the Ohio Drug Price Relief Act, which would force the state to pay no more for prescription drugs than the lowest price paid by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.(Rich Pedroncelli, AP Photo)

The Ohio Drug Price Relief Act would force the state to spend no more for prescription drugs than the lowest price paid by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Ohio Taxpayers for Lower Drug Prices, the group backing the initiative, says it would save the state $400 million a year on drugs for about 4 million Ohioans.

It would apply to Medicaid, the joint state and federal health insurance for poor and disabled Ohioans; Department of Health; state prisons; state retirement systems; the Bureau of Workers Compensation and other state programs.

The former Medicaid officials, who served under Republican and Democrat governors, said the initiative's authors don't understand how drug pricing works in Medicaid and other state programs, and the proposal could drive up prices for veterans and privately insured Ohioans.

McCarthy said the VA also serves as a pharmacy, dispensing in-person and by mail, and is able to cut costs related to transportation and pharmacy distribution. McCarthy said the initiative doesn't prevent drug companies from raising prices for the VA in response.

Dennis Willard, spokesman for Ohio Taxpayers for Lower Drug Prices, said threatening to raise drug prices for veterans was a low move. Williard said the measure will save taxpayer money and send a message to pharmaceutical companies that Ohioans are sick of skyrocketing drug costs.

"It allows Ohio to do what Washington D.C. won't do which is address our problematic health care program by reducing drug prices," Willard said.

The campaigns for and against the measure began only in the past week. There has been no independent analysis yet examining how the plan would affect Ohio.

Edwards said some state programs felt they would save money if offered VA prices, but others, including the state's HIV and AIDS program, would not.

"An initiative approach that ties the hands of the public administrators is simply bad law," Edwards said.

The fight over the November ballot issue is expected to be expensive. A nearly identical California measure lost 53 to 47 percent last year. California-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which is behind both measures, was outspent nearly 6-to-1, mostly by a dozen drug companies.

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